Ahead of his UFC 300 main event against Alex Pereira on April 13th, former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill called upon the experience of former middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya.
With Glover Teixeira having fought Jamahal Hill in January last year and therefore being able to offer more knowledge to his understudy, ‘Sweet Dreams’ decided to try and even up the odds by calling upon the services of Israel Adesanya.
‘The Last Stylebender’ has fought Alex Pereira twice in the confines of a UFC Octagon, sharing a victory each, and so Hill decided to try and gain some of Adesanya’s knowledge of Alex Pereira as a fighter.
Jamahal Hill returns for the first time since rupturing his Achilles
This will be the 32-year-old’s first fight since winning the vacant light heavyweight title against Teixeira back at UFC 283. Following that fight, Hill ruptured his Achilles in a pick-up basketball game, so he vacated the title.
That left the door open for former middleweight champion, Alex Pereira to challenge for the vacant title against Jiri Prochazka. The Brazilian scored the second-round knockout, becoming a two-weight world champion.
After suffering such a severe injury, Hill took time out to have surgery and to go through a rehabilitation process. The original timeline for his return was later this year, however after a quicker-than-expected recovery, he was able to accept the UFC 300 main event headline spot.
Tim Welch – Sean O’Malley‘s head coach – recently questioned how well Hill will have recovered from such a serious injury, with it having not been a long period on the sideline, as he has suffered from the same injury.
Teixeira questions the significance of Hill acquiring Adesanya’s knowledge
Glover Teixeira, the head coach of Pereira, has questioned the significance of Adesanya’s advice to Hill, despite acknowledging that it will be a ‘help’.
“Izzy beat Alex once, how many times is he going to fight Alex in that fight and how many times is that going to turn on Izzy’s side?” Teixeira questioned in an interview on the ShakMMA YouTube channel.
“Izzy is a great fighter and for sure if he’s in anybody’s corner he’s going to be a help. Anybody that comes in and sees something different at a high level, he can be a help for sure. It’s just another help if you say Izzy or Jon Jones or some high-level guys, it’s all going to help because of the experience, but it’s not something that’s going to be magic.” the former light heavyweight champion added.
Pereira – the former two-weight kickboxing champion – has shown clear holes in the rest of his MMA game, with Hill likely holding the advantage on the ground.
With that, ‘Sweet Dreams’ believes the champion only has ‘one way’ he can retain the light heavyweight title, and that is by catching Hill off guard with one big shot.